The Nuffield Foundation Suggests Reforming The School Year (BBC News)

Scotland's arrangements seem better to me. Summer holidays are still quite long, early July to mid-August, giving more of the best of summer instead of the dog days. But I would shorten the long summer holiday and have a week off in early June.

Doesn’t this come round with monotonous regularity?
There will be as many variants on the present system as interested parties surveyed and as usual, nothing much will change. .

I always enjoyed the long six week holiday with my children just as I enjoy it with my GC, as do their parents.

I enjoyed it too, but I was lucky enough not to have to work as most mothers seem to now just to survive. A expensive nightmare for those without childcare.

Assuming that the amount of time out of the classroom remains the same, I'm not sure that I can see how this would benefit working parents, as the need for childcare would be rearranged through the year. Cover would then be required for, say, two weeks in October and February as well as the month in the summer.
The point about learning slippage may well be relevant.

I always loved the long holidays, I disliked school but going back after the break was exciting & motivating, just because we'd been out so long & it was a new year.
It's been 4 generations roughly since children were a significant factor in getting the harvest in on time, so if it hasn't happened yet I'd be suprised if it happens in future.

Will that mean that holidays during a four week summer holiday period will be even more extortionate? Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time ( given that travel is important for children).

I enjoyed the long summer holidays with our children, 7+ weeks for private schools.
Of course, there was a bit of slipping backwards in their learning, this wasn't in their skills but more in their attitude. A good teacher should be able to re fire their enthusiasm for learning in little time after the holidays.

Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time
Indeed this, particularly in primary school.

MayBee70

Will that mean that holidays during a four week summer holiday period will be even more extortionate? Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time ( given that travel is important for children).

Yes, let’s not worry about education - let children go on holiday whenever it suits the parents - then, if the school holidays are shortened, teachers can spend all their precious time preparing and delivering catch up lessons for the little darlings 🤷‍♀️🤬

escaped

^Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time^
Indeed this, particularly in primary school.

I despair, honestly, I despair.

Ziplock despair away, we used a mixture of private and state schools, we had our own business and were restricted on when we could both get away at the same time.

Taking our five out of school at various times hasn’t hindered their education or career paths.

Three of them were taken out for two and three months respectively over two Christmas’s.

Learning slippage doesn’t appear to have negatively affected the majority of us who went through the education system, having long summer holidays, Easter and Christmas breaks plus half term holidays. How on earth were we clever enough to then go on and achieve our various qualifications (most people acquired some qualifications, some more than others of course); obtain a job/career, and some, believe it or not, even became scientists, doctors, nurses, professors, teachers, etc, etc. ( Some of them eminent in their field, too). How on earth can this possibly happen when school children have such lengthy holidays, impacting their learning? 🤷‍♀️
As you may gather, I’m weary of this old chestnut that school holidays are too long.

All through my teaching career, forty plus years, there have been schemes proposed to alter the terms of the school year, the four term year being the most sensible, and the one which had the most support.
But it all hinges on the academic university year, and they are totally resistant to any change. Academics use their long holidays for research, writing and publishing, and will not relinquish them easily.
Moving the summer holidays forward to June and July would make good sense,but whenever they are the price of holidays will rise accordingly. Schools will not be sympathetic to children having time off throughout the year for holidays; parents ignore how unsettling it is and how difficult for the child to catch up on work missed.
And parents always say, it hasn't hindered their school careers in any way. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they, the same as they deny family break-ups have any impact on their children.
We see the children in the context of other children, and we know.

GrannyGravy13

Ziplock despair away, we used a mixture of private and state schools, we had our own business and were restricted on when we could both get away at the same time.

Taking our five out of school at various times hasn’t hindered their education or career paths.

Three of them were taken out for two and three months respectively over two Christmas’s.

I despair at the attitude that seems all too common, that schools are there to work around the needs of parents. Schools are there to provide an education - not operate in an ad hoc fashion whilst people take their offspring out of school at times other than the designated holiday pattern in order to suit them. The syllabus would go to pot and collapse if children could be absent whenever it suited their parents/guardians.

escaped

^Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time^
Indeed this, particularly in primary school.

I think schools were until Ofsted made attendance a significant measure of how good schools were.

Attendance under 98%, bad school.

Ziplock our children’s memories of their travels with us which they still reminisce about more than compensates for a telling off on an anonymous forum.

(As does their degrees, careers and happy children of their own)

Actually ziplock it worked just fine in Primary School when we weren’t hamstrung by a curriculum that had to be delivered regardless of the learner.

When we treated children as individual learners.

Sigh.

Ziplok

MayBee70

Will that mean that holidays during a four week summer holiday period will be even more extortionate? Maybe schools should be a bit more understanding if parents choose to take their children abroad during school time ( given that travel is important for children).

Yes, let’s not worry about education - let children go on holiday whenever it suits the parents - then, if the school holidays are shortened, teachers can spend all their precious time preparing and delivering catch up lessons for the little darlings 🤷‍♀️🤬

My daughter was a teacher so I know all too well how hard teachers work, especially during the so called holidays when she was lesson planning ( she left the profession, totally burnt out and I was sick of arguing with people about teachers having amazing long holidays; as if).But I also think that travel is as important as education in some ways. My DIL works for the NHS. How will they cope if all of their staff have to cram their summer holiday into a four week period? Maybe holidays were initially based around children helping with the harvest but that doesn’t mean that other changing social needs shouldn’t be taken into account. One of my daughters sons will miss the first day of term because they’re taking him to Athens to see the Acropolis and it was the only week they could fit it in because of his brothers exam results and hopefully needing to sort out his university placement/accommodation etc.

MayBee70 exactly all employers and workplaces have to have a certain degree of flexibility, it would be chaos if the entire U.K. came to a halt for the same weeks each year.

Maybe the education department should consider this as opposed to sticking to their rigid curriculum.

Things that wouldn’t change or would change for the worse with a shorter summer break.
Prices in the four week break would be even worse.
Parents would still take their children out of school at cheaper times.
Teachers would still have to take their holidays in the most expensive times.

Non-teachers or those not associated with teachers will still complain about teachers and their holidays.

Mollygo I don’t think I have ever complained about a teacher, I have complained about the system

We have teachers in our extended family, I know it’s not a 9-4 job with long holidays.

GrannyGravy13

Mollygo I don’t think I have ever complained about a teacher, I have complained about the system

We have teachers in our extended family, I know it’s not a 9-4 job with long holidays.

Exactly!
You are associated with teachers, so have a better idea of what’s involved.

MayBee70 exactly all employers and workplaces have to have a certain degree of flexibility, it would be chaos if the entire U.K. came to a halt for the same weeks each year.
Maybe the education department should consider this as opposed to sticking to their rigid curriculum.

And exactly how do you propose to make this degree of flexibilty work as you abandon the rigid curriculum?Granny Gravy?
Indidvidual curriculums for indivdual learners?